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I'm a novice home brewer who likes West Coast IPAs and the occasional double IPA. I also started growing hops in my backyard last year and I'd like to put together a beer using all 5 hops. I'd like to see a fully bodied IPA from smell to finish with a 6-8%ABV. Is this a reasonable recipe? I'm particularly interested in advice on the LME, grains and yeast choices, as well as hop order. Thanks.

Ingredients :

  • 6.6 lbs (2.9 kg) of light-colored American liquid malt extract(LME)
  • 0.5 lb Crystal malt (20 °L)
  • 0.5 lb Crystal malt (40L)
  • CTZ whole hops (0.5 oz/14g at 14% alpha acids) (60 min.)
  • Add remaining 3.3 lb of LME at 20 min.
  • 0.5 oz (14 g) Cascade whole hops 5% alpha acids (15 min.)
  • 0.5 oz (14 g) Chinook whole hops 10%alpha acids (5 min.)
  • 1 oz (28 g) Fuggle whole hops 5% alpha acids (0 min.)
  • 1.5 oz (42 g) Centennial whole hops 10% alpha acids (dry)
  • Wyeast 1272 (American Ale II) yeast

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It looks fine, but I'm not sure you're going to get the desired effect from the diverse hops. I expect that the Fuggle especially will be washed out by the other hop flavors. If you really want to showcase your homegrown hops, consider using just a few of them. The flavors will be more distinct if there's less conflict, C hops are a solid group to work with for IPAs. If you use 3 or 4 of those, you may have more satisfying results.

That said, it looks like it will be a perfectly fine IPA with the recipe you've listed. If your goal is more about making a beer that uses your homegrown hops than it is showing anything in particular about the hops then go for it. There's nothing in here that stands out to me as a bad idea.

Everything else looks good to me. LME is great, but it spoils more quickly than DME. Be sure to get it at a shop that has high turnover. The yeast is a solid choice. You said you're a novice, have you used liquid yeast before? You will have to start it in advance, but that's pretty easy.

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  • Philippe, Your answer is much appreciated. I understand completely about drowning out the flavors. This will probably be a one-and-done and then I'll dial back on the number of hops.Thanks for the suggestions on the LME and yeast. I've had good luck with LME so far, but I might try the liquid yeast.
    – 5HopSteve
    Apr 5, 2017 at 16:12

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